MHFA England® and R;pple Suicide Prevention Charity announce a strategic partnership to provide support and protection to employees at their most vulnerable points.
Effective September 1,2023, MHFA England has rolled out the innovative crisis intervention tool, R;pple, as a browser extension across all its workstations. The project covers 80 staff nationwide, ensuring more help and support is given to individuals searching for harmful content online.
R;pple is a digital tool designed to present a visual prompt when a person searches for harmful keywords or phrases relating to self-harm or suicide. Before any distressing online material is displayed, a simple and calmly presented screen pops up to provide a range of support options. R;pple guides the person through a filter of breathing exercises and then signposts to helplines, mental health services and forums, they can access immediately and longer term, accompanied with messages of hope and encouragement to keep safe.
One of the focal points of the partnership is the incorporation of R;pple within MHFA England's newly launched Suicide First Aid training program, which enables organisations to embed suicide prevention into their mental health and wellbeing strategies.
“MHFA England believe that suicide is preventable through education and intervention - and tools such as R;pple are a vital part of this.
“What Alice and her team have done in creating this interceptive tool is incredible. From a place of immense sadness, she has built something that gives those struggling with their mental health, safety, hope and a future.
“We are proud to work in partnership with R;pple and join the impressive list of workplaces and education settings that have already downloaded the tool. Together, we can all work to raise awareness of suicide, take steps to prevent it and help reduce the stigma surrounding it.”
- Alicia Nagar, Head of People, Wellbeing and Equity, MHFA England
“We are thrilled to welcome MHFA England as our partner. The work they have been doing to improve the mental health of the nation is admirable and genuinely transformative to how our society views and addresses mental health challenges.
“Helping organisations create an environment where everyone can talk freely about mental health and is able to offer and seek support is something we, at R;pple, strongly relate to. The partnership with MHFA England marks a significant leap in our journey to save lives and we believe in its enormous potential to drive meaningful change in workplace mental health and suicide prevention efforts.”
- Alice Hendy, Founder and CEO, R;pple
About Mental Health First Aid England®
- MHFA England CIC is a social enterprise, established in 2009.
- MHFA England’s vision is to improve the mental health of the nation by creating societal change so we can all talk freely about mental health and offer and seek support when we need it. This will be achieved by its mission to train at least 1:10 of the adult population in mental health knowledge and skills.
- To date nearly 1:40 (August 2023) of the adult population is trained in MHFA England awareness, knowledge and skills.
- MHFA England will achieve its mission through delivering mental health training into workplaces and will extend its reach to the NHS and Black People and People of Colour, through subsidised training.
- MHFA England offers a number of face-to-face, online and digital training options to increase mental health awareness, knowledge and skills, including the internationally licensed product, Mental Health First Aid.
- MHFA® is the mental health equivalent of physical first aid training and provides people with the skills and confidence to recognise the signs and symptoms of common mental health issues, start a conversation, and effectively guide a person towards the right support, be that self-help or professional services.
- More information about MHFA England and its courses can be found atmhfaengland.org or by emailing info@mhfaengland.org.
About R;pple
R;pple Suicide Prevention was founded and established as a charity in May 2021 by Alice Hendy, following the death of her brother Josh, in November 2020 to suicide at 21 years old. Josh had been researching techniques to take his own life via harmful internet searches. To ensure more help and support is given to individuals searching for harmful content online, Alice set up R;pple; a digital tool that can provide immediate support and comfort to people searching for harmful content relating to the topic of suicide and self-harm. With millions of downloads worldwide, R;pple is intercepting thousands of harmful online searches, continually saving lives from suicide. Learn more: https://www.ripplesuicideprevention.com
